Labrador-shepeard mix, Beau, cheeses for the camera after finding out he has a new forever home. (Courtesy photo)

By BUD SARGENT    

Journal Managing Editor

MARQUETTE — What’s as long as one’s arms are spread wide, furry and has a wet nose?

If you an employee or volunteer at the Upper Peninsula Animal Welfare Shelter, better known as UPAWS, that brief description might apply to any number of dogs that pass through the facility each year.

Yet it was one particular Lab-shepherd mix named Beau who was a hard-luck case that got everyone’s attention.

“It was one of those stories that could have gone wrong, really wrong,” said Julie Mahan, UPAWS’ behavioral animal care coordinator. “Right now, I’m very hopeful.”

Beau’s odyssey began in September 2023, when he arrived at UPAWS with two of his siblings from another shelter. Within a short time, the siblings were adopted but for reasons that remain unclear, not Beau.

“He’s really a very good boy who was dealt some bad cards,” Mahan said. “He needed the right environment.”

But Beau landed in the wrong environment on a number of occasions, courtesy of adoptions and rehomes that just didn’t work out.

Mahan said UPAWS staff was beginning to worry that being bounced around would have a deleterious effect on Beau; every time he was adopted and returned or rehomed, it becomes that much harder to convince the animal to trust.

“There was a lack of stability in his life,” Mahan said. “It makes it hard …”

But everything changed at the end of March. A local man adopted Beau and gave him the stability he so desperately needed. He’s a new dog who pairs well with his new owner.

“He definitely saved Beau’s life,” opined Mahan. “He came in with the right mindset.”

Ann Brownell, UPAWS’ community outreach/volunteer coordinator, agreed that Beau’s adopter was the right man at the right time.

“These animals, they come in and they become our family,” she said. “We celebrate (at successful adoptions) and we cry happy tears.”